Archaeological Correlates of Algonquian Languages in Quebec-Labrador

J. PETER DENNY University of Western Ontario

In this paper1 I look at the development of the Cree-Montagnais language in the Quebec-Labrador peninsula by combining linguistic and archaeological data. I also examine the likelihood that an Eastern Algonquian language related to Beothuk was spoken on the Labrador coast. In both cases these languages spread from Algonquian homelands far to the west. In considering Cree-Montagnais, the salient fact is that it consists of a chain of dialects making up one language stretching from Labrador to Alberta. Linguists are sure this means that it has spread recently across the boreal forest, perhaps between AD 500 and 1500; if it had been spoken for a long time across the north it would have differentiated into separate languages. Therefore, the archaeology of relatively recent times will be relevant. The archaeology of slightly earlier times will be relevant to con­ sidering whether a Beothuk-related language was spoken in Labrador. This earlier tradition will be considered first. What are the mechanisms by which Algonquian speech spread to the Quebec-Labrador peninsula? In most cases, existing populations of non- Algonquian speakers seem to have intensified their social relations with Algonquian-speaking neighbours to the west and eventually joined with them in an enlarged Algonquian-speaking society. However, in some cases, there seem to have been migrations of Algonquian speakers into lightly- occupied parts of the peninsula where they eventually absorbed local pop­ ulations into their own social system. We will see that the archaeological evidence for these events is regrettably slight, but it is nonetheless crucial to hypothesize specific mechanisms of language change, which can be subject

*A preliminary outline of this paper was given at the 23rd Algonquian Con­ ference, London, Ontario, in 1991. I wish to thank the many scholars who sent unpublished reports and made suggestions for this work: David Denton, Joce- lyn Seguin, Marguerite MacKenzie, Jose Mailhot, Roy Wright, Charles Martijn, Michael Spence, Stephen Loring, Douglas Robbins, Cath Oberholtzer, Daniel Chevrier, and Peter Bakker. All the figuresar e reproduced with the permission of the original publishers, whom I thank for their helpfulness.

83 84 DENNY

to further study. One consequence of these strategies of language replace­ ment is the survival in Algonquian of a few words from the languages that were replaced (Pentland 1993).

Eastern Algonquian on the Labrador Coast

The starting point for suspecting that an Eastern Algonquian language was once spoken on the Labrador coast is the archaeological evidence that Labrador was the original home of the Beothuks: they gradually migrated to Newfoundland beginning about AD 800 (Robbins 1989). This migra­ tion was also reported in Beothuk oral history (Howley 1915:256). The archaeological tradition in Labrador which seems to have been the origin of the Beothuks is the Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge tradition (AD 200-1600) (Loring 1988). In order to argue that this tradition involved Eastern Algon­ quian speech we have to look for connections back to the original homelands of Eastern Algonquian languages. We are somewhat encouraged in this search by the possibility that Beothuk was an Eastern Algonquian lan­ guage. Unfortunately, the written record of Beothuk speech obtained from the last speakers in the early 1800s is of such poor quality that Beothuk can never be proven to be an Algonquian language by the standard techniques of historical linguistics. All we are left with are morphological resemblances that make it probable that it was Algonquian (Hewson 1978). Since one of the theses of this paper will be that Central Algonquian speech, in par­ ticular Cree-Montagnais, arrived in Labrador very much later, if Beothuk is Algonquian it can only be Eastern Algonquian, rather than Central as suggested by Hewson. There is some reassurance in learning that the ar­ chaeological resemblances for the Point Revenge complex from which the Beothuk descended are strongest with the Maritimes and northern New England (Fitzhugh 1978:171), areas of Eastern Algonquian speech. To trace the Labrador archaeological tradition, Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge, back to earlier centers of Eastern Algonquian language we have to have identified those centers on other evidence. One technique used by linguists is the principle of least moves (Dyen 1956) which identifies, as the earlier homeland, the region having the greatest number of surviving languages. For Eastern Algonquian this would be southern New England. However, neither linguistics nor archaeology encourages the idea that Mic­ mac or Beothuk are linked directly to that region. Consequently we have to look for earlier centers of Eastern Algonquian culture from which both the languages of the Maritimes and those of New England might have arisen. An excellent candidate is the Middlesex tradition (700 BC to 50 BC) cen­ tered at Lake Champlain. This had offshoots in southern New England ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR 85

(Loring 1985b), in the Micmac area (Allen 1982), and as we will see in detail, in Quebec-Labrador. Equally importantly, the Middlesex tradition is well-connected archae- ologically to what I have hypothesized to be the earlier Midwestern center of Proto-Algonquian (Denny 1991b). By the linguistic principle of least moves this would be the Lake Michigan-Ohio River area;2 the archaeological tra­ dition there which is the forerunner of Middlesex is Red Ocher/Glacial Kame (1400-400 BC). I have traced this latter tradition further back to the Western Idaho Archaic Burial complex (2500-1800 BC) in the Columbia Plateau region (Denny 1991a). On linguistic grounds, Sapir (1916) had already hypothesized that Algonquian speech originated in the West, and the Delaware oral traditions state that they came from there (Heckewelder 1819).3 From this line of research, the Middlesex tradition centered at Lake Champlain is a plausible starting-point for the spread of Eastern Algon­ quian. Returning now to Labrador, the Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge tradition (AD 200-1600), which is ancestral to the Beothuk, has been connected to the Middlesex tradition by recent archaeological findingsreporte d by Lor­ ing (1989). The cache he uncovered at the Daniel Rattle site on the central Labrador coast (close to the modern settlement of Davis Inlet) contains three ceremonial artifacts that occur at other Middlesex sites in the upper St. Lawrence/Lake Ontario region: a piece of graphite, a beach pebble, and a Robbins blade. The latter (shown front and back in Loring 1989, Fig. 5) is reproduced here as Fig. 1. This cache seems to bridge between the In­ termediate Period complexes and the Daniel Rattle complex, because the other artifacts in it are all typical of the preceding Intermediate Period cultures of the Labrador coast. Loring argues that this cache represents the adoption of Middlesex ceremonialism by existing Labrador peoples. In addition, Loring (1989:56) stresses that since the boreal forest did not have the resources to support a dense population and since a successful adap­ tation required great mobility, ceremonial artifacts such as the contents of

2Another technique used by linguists, finding the overlapping area for the biological species named by reconstructed Proto-Algonquian words, locates the Proto-Algonquian homeland between Lakes Huron and Ontario (Siebert 1967). However, Snow (1976) has re-analysed this data to show that the whole of the Great Lakes, New England and the Maritimes is implicated. I found that the alternative technique, the principle of least moves, led to useful archaeological correlates. 3 This tradition is not remembered by modern Delaware probably because the story-telling families were wiped out in the great epidemics of the early 19th century. 86 DENNY

Figure 1: Robbins blade, Daniel Rattle (from Lorring 1989) this cache are evidence of efforts to maintain social connections with dis­ tant groups. However for a Beothuk-related language to be established as a part of Daniel Rattle-Point Revenge culture more intimate social inter­ actions must have taken place.This suggests to me a way in which Eastern Algonquian influence took hold in this region, for which we will see other evidence. Small groups of Middlesex peoples moved there, probably es­ tablishing a maritime economy which was not directly in competition with the more interior-based subsistence of the Intermediate Period inhabitants. Gradually these latter were recruited to the new economy with its distinc­ tive Eastern Algonquian language and ceremonial life. In this way, it can be true that there was, as Loring says "a remarkable social and economic transformation", and also as he says "a long in situ cultural development" (quoted from the English original for the French translation). Why should we prefer the hypothesis that Middlesex folk migrated to Labrador rather than the other possibility that Middlesex influence ar­ rived through down-the-line trade? One reason is the fundamental change from interior to maritime economy, and a second is the very long distance from the Middlesex centers on Lake Champlain. Thirdly, if one accepts the reasoning outlined above that the Beothuks were Eastern Algonquian- speaking descendants of the Point Revenge peoples of Labrador, and that Middlesex culture is the source of Eastern Algonquian, then the language change hypothesized to begin with the Daniel Rattle complex would have required much more intense influence than just trade relationships. ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR

Figure 2: a) Turkey-tail; b) Red Ocher blade, GeEl-1 Caniapiscau (from Donton 1989)

A fourth reason is the rapid and complete changeover in lithic ma­ terials: Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge peoples replaced the local sources previosly used by extraordinary amounts of Ramah chert which they had to transport from quarries in the Dorset Eskimo territories of northern Labrador. Their prodigal use of Ramah material points to an ease of ac­ cess (Loring 1985a: 135) which must have been based upon building and maintaining excellent peaceful relations with the Dorset people. In addi­ tion, Loring (1988:161) says they would have required "a fairly sophisti­ cated maritime technology" — I suggest that they were the inventors of the Beothuk sea-going canoe (Marshall 1985) which requires an enormous rock ballast for stability. All of this seems congruent with the view that the founders of Daniel Rattle were Middlesex migrants who entered peacefully and recruited the local inhabitants into Algonquian culture. Further evidence for a Middlesex connection with the Labrador coast comes from the other Middlesex-related sites in Quebec. Most importantly, in the center of the peninsula in the Lake Caniapiscau region, David Denton has found a site, GeEl-1, which contains two striking artifacts, which in my judgement are of types found in Middlesex assemblages at Lake Champlain: a Turkeytail-like point and the butt end of a Red Ocher-like blade (Den­ ton 1989 PI. la and lb, respectively) — reproduced here as Fig. 2. Lake Champlain examples of these designs from the Boucher site are shown in Heckenberger et al (1990: what appears to me to be a Red Ocher-like blade 88 DENNY

Figure 3: Left: Red Ocher blade; right: Turkey-tail, Boucher (from Heckenberger et al 1990)

in Fig. 4B, lower right; and what appears to be a Turkeytail-like point in Fig. 7B, lower right)—reproduced here as Fig. 3. If these resemblances are acceptable we are dealing with very conservative designs that go back to the origins of Middlesex within Red Ocher/Glacial Kame ceremonialism in the Proto-Algonquian homeland south of Lake Michigan, and, for the Turkey-tail design, back further to the Columbia Plateau origins of the Algonquians in the Western Idaho Archaic burial complex (Denny 1991a). Denton (1989) has pointed out two further unusual features of the Caniapiscau site, GeEl-1. Firstly, it dates to about AD 1, and is the only site found in a 400 year long hiatus in settlement of the region (between 100 BC and AD 300). To me, this encourages the view set forth above that a new group, Middlesex people bearing Eastern Algonquian language, had colonized the area. Secondly, Denton points out that there are "strong links" between this site and the earliest phases of the Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge tradition on the Labrador coast. It is tempting, therefore, to see GeEl-1 as part of the founding of that later tradition. The path back to the Middlesex heartland at Lake Champlain is com­ pleted by sites along the north shore of the St. Lawrence. The most significant of these is at Sillery (on the western edge of Quebec City) where a burial was found containing Robbins points like the one in the Daniel Rattle cache, and Turkeytail-like points as at Caniapiscau (Clermont 1976: PI. 4) —these are reproduced here as Fig. 4. Robbins points are charac- ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR 89

Figure 4: Right: Robbins blade; below Turkey-tail, Sillery (from Clermont 1976) teristic of the latter half of the Middlesex tradition, c. 200 BC-AD 200 (Justice 1987:188); both the Caniapiscau site, GeEl-1, and the start of the David Rattle complex fall in the last centuries of this period. Particularly early Middlesex influences, perhaps about 700 BC, are seen at the Batis- can site (near Trois Rivieres) where Adena rather than Robbins points occurred. Adena points are also found inland in the upper reaches of the St. Maurice drainage at the Boisclair/Lac Culotte site (Ribes and Klimov 1974: PI. LXI). Later signs of Middlesex influences, perhaps after AD 500, are seen farther east along the north shore at Moisie where a Turkeytail- like point, similar in design but much smaller than the one at Caniapiscau, has been found on the Riviere au Bouleau 1 site (Chevrier 1977:176). Evi­ dence of the connection to Point Revenge comes from the predominant use at this site of Ramah chert from northern Labrador. Based on this site, Chevrier suggests that new groups had arrived from the southwest, who were adapted to big game hunting. In discussing the point types which may be related to the Middlesex tradition I have sometimes had to simply point out resemblances since the necessary typological resarch has not been acomplished; this is particu­ larly true for the Turkeytail-like and Red Ocher-like items. In contrast, the Robbins blades seem reliably close to the defined types. Despite this sometimes tentative evidence, we have seen fairly widespread Middlesex influences whose longest continuing effect is the Daniel Rattle/Point Re­ venge tradition on the Labrador Coast. Within that tradition, Fitzhugh 90 DENNY

has noted that Midwest influences are seen in the ovate-trianguloid side- notched points found at a variety of Hamilton Inlet sites (Fitzhugh 1972: PI. 46a, 67a, 70a-d, and 71f-m) — such points are found in the Middle­ sex tradition, illustrated at the Boucher Cemetery on Lake Champlain in Heckenberger et al (1990: Fig. 7, middle row, right; and lower row, left). As Fitzhugh says, "The Point Revenge complex clearly represents a north­ ern movement of new peoples from the south" (1972:133). We have looked at linguistic and archaeological data suggesting that this was an Eastern Algonquian culture related to the Beothuk. All of this confirms a hypoth­ esis along these lines put forward by Speck (1931:572). How this Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge tradition (AD 200 to AD 1600) died out at the end of that period is best told as a part of the history of Cree-Montagnais, to which we now turn.

The Entry of Cree-Montagnais into Quebec-Labrador

We have already remarked that the Cree-Montagnais dialects of Quebec- Labrador are part of a much larger chain of Cree dialects stretching west to Alberta, and that such a widespread geography for the language must have developed fairly recently, probably after AD 500. We have also noted on linguistic and archaeological grounds that the Proto-Algonquians most likely settled (about 1500 BC) in the Lake Michigan-Ohio River area af­ ter their migration east. We expect, therefore, that Cree language spread northwards from Lake Michigan. Dawson (1983) has postulated the mi­ gration of small groups of southerners to favourable locations in the boreal forest — this is the development of Laurel culture (100 BC-AD 1200). Its sources appear to be several related cultures south of Lake Superior, es­ pecially North Bay culture (600 BC-AD 100) at the northwest corner of Lake Michigan (Salzer 1986). The Laurel tradition appeared by 100 BC to the west of Lake Superior, and by AD 100 at the southeast corner of the lake. From the west end it spread northwest beyond Lake Winnipeg by AD 100 (Reid and Rajnovitch 1991). From the east, it spread both around the north shore of Lake Superior by AD 600 or so, and also north­ eastwards to Lakes Temiscaming and Abitibi by AD 650 (Cote 1993). This westward and eastward spread of Laurel across the boreal forest certainly has the right configuration to be the spread of Cree-Montagnais. The Lau­ rel peoples seem likely to have been the carriers of Cree speech into the boreal forest not only because of strong archaeological connections to the Lake Michigan region, but also because there is some evidence that they introduced desireable new practices into the region: intensive fishing,wil d rice gathering, ceramics and possibly large-scale social gatherings (Dawson ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR 91

1983). These innovations are likely what persuaded existing boreal forest groups to affiliate with the newcomers and adopt Cree as their language. The entry of Cree language into Quebec-Labrador was probably achiev­ ed by the extension of northeastern Laurel into the base of the peninsula by the 8th century AD. Wright (1967:111) reviews three sites in the boreal forest at the base of the peninsula that seem to have both Laurel ceramics and Laurel points. In another report, he shows the extent of Quebec Laurel: it reached to the Nottaway River in the north and the upper St. Maurice in the south (Wright 1979:51, Map 5). To the archaeologist, this is the eastern edge of the Laurel tradition, because this is as far as one finds sites with both Laurel points and Laurel potsherds. However, as culture historians interested in the further eastward spread of Cree, we will attempt to trace the eastward spread of Cree-Montagnais by the continuing occurrences of Laurel points alone.

The Spread of Cree-Montagnais across Quebec-Labrador

We are positing the Nottaway and upper St. Maurice drainages as the area from which both East Cree and Montagnais developed after about AD 800. To assess the relevant archaeology, it is very useful to firsthav e a look at the geographic arrangement of the various Cree-Montagnais dialects; these are set forth in MacKenzie (1980). The main division is a north-south one separating East Cree and Naskapi dialects from Montagnais dialects. The other major division is of East Cree to the west and Naskapi (those living recently at Fort Chimo and Davis Inlet) to the east. This closer relation of Naskapi to East Cree is confirmed by genetic studies (Blumberg et al 1964) and by material culture (Fitzhugh 1972:180). MacKenzie's findings are an important corrective to the earlier view that Naskapi dialect was more closely related to Montagnais, which exerted considerable influence upon the general theorizing of Fitzhugh (1972:184ff). Overall, the various kinds of data all suggest two streams of west to east development of Cree- Montagnais, and this is what we will look for in the archaeology.

The Archaeology of East Cree and Naskapi

Before we begin, it is important to emphasize that my hypothesis will claim that Cree speech was adopted by an existing culture in what became the East Cree area. The most likely reason for their changing language was to strengthen their social connections with the more populous lands to the west. Mailhot (1986) has stressed that hunters in Quebec-Labrador used very complex networks of kinship relations to ensure a very high level of mobility among hunting territories. Certainly shared language would have 92 DENNY aided in this intense social connectedness, indeed it may, in part, have grown out of it. A search for the archaeological correlates of East Cree presents special difficulties which have been discussed by Martijn and Rogers (1969). With­ out the ceramic indicators of Laurel culture, the Laurel lithics alone are hard to evaluate because, as we will see, very similar side-notched points occur which may not be related to Laurel. Nonetheless, side-notched points with an ovate-trianguloid outline, such as the Laurel ones, are a frequent feature of the archaeological traditions which seem to be related to the Algonquian language family. They are found in the Idaho Archaic Burial complex (illustrated in Butler 1986:132, Fig. 6g-h) which I have argued is the Proto-Algonquians prior to their migration eastwards after 1900 BC (Denny 1991a). Their first appearance in the Northeast (about 1700 BC) is at the Reigh and Oconto sites northwest of Lake Michigan which seem to represent interactions of the Algonquian migrants with Old Copper peo­ ples. They continued southeast of Lake Michigan, north of Lake Erie (Ellis et al 1990: Fig. 4.28A), and south of Lake Ontario, where they seem to have given rise after 900 BC to the Meadowood variant of the design (Spence et al 1990: Fig. 5.2B). It is this Meadowood variant which spread into Quebec; one example was dated by associated with Vinette II ceramics to about AD 500 at La Pointe-du-Lac on the St. Lawrence just west of Trois Rivieres (Ribes 1966). Meadowood associations have also been claimed for the nearby Batiscan site, dated much earlier c. 700 BC, but the re­ semblances for the side-notched points are much less clear (Levesque et al 1964: PL 2, 2 to 9). As we will discuss in a moment, Laurel points are also descended from the same Algonquian tradition of side-notched ovate- trianguloid points. Given the very close resemblance of Meadowood to Laurel points only tentative inferences can be drawn about the latter in a region where both may occur. Investigations in the La Grande (Fort George) drainage have revealed what seem to be Laurel influences at site GaGb-43A on the Kanaaupscow River. This site contains both some smaller, plainer Laurel points (Cerane 1984: PI. 2F-K), and one of the larger, fancier ones (PI. 2A) — the latter and two of the former are reproduced here as Fig. 5. One part of this site is dated about AD 800, but the Laurel lithics are not directly associated with it. Checking back to the central region of Laurel culture, both types are shown for the Heron Bay site on the north shore of Lake Superior in Wright (1967: PI. IV, respectively 1 and 2 and 6) —these are reproduced here as Fig. 6. Returning to Quebec, northward from the La Grande, Laurel points also occur at the mouth of the Great Whale River about AD 900 (Amenatech 1984). Laurel points are particularly good evidence of Algonquian cultural influences because, not only are they characteristic of ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR 93

Figure 5: Left: large Laurel point; centre and right: small Laurel points, La Grande (from Cerane 1984)

the Laurel tradition, but they appear to be derived from the Snyders points (Justice 1987:202) found in North Bay culture (600 BC-AD 200), northwest of Lake Michigan, which is the hypothesized ancestor of Laurel. Snyders points connect us to the Algonquian heartland south of Lake Michigan, where they characterized various cultures contemporaneous with North Bay which are inferred to have been Algonquian-speaking (Denny 1992). These points seem to me to be a development of the earlier Hodges points (Justice 1987:171) found south of Lake Michigan for Red Ochre peoples, whom I have argued elsewhere were Algonquian pioneers in the Midwest (Denny 1991a). Sometimes archaeologists have argued that point types do not have reliable correlations with cultures. However, if one can fittogethe r the spe­ cific timing and geography expected from linguistics with a parallel pattern in the point types, they become valuable evidence. Also, newer archaeolog­ ical theories recognize that particular lithic designs may be strongly related to culture because they were used to signal social membership (Hall 1983; Hodder 1982). The social significance of both Laurel and Snyders points is further evidenced by their both having plain, small versions, and larger, fancy versions. Thus, despite being limited to lithic evidence, we can ten­ tatively infer from the geographic distribution of Laurel points that East Cree speech was established in its present region by AD 900 or so. Nonethe­ less, these inferences are only preliminary; Daniel Chevrier has reminded DENNY

Figure 6: Left: large Laurel point; centre and right: small Laurel points, Heron Bay (from Wright 1967; shown 3/4 size) me that side-notched points similar to the Laurel designs are found in the upper La Grande drainage at about 1300 BC, and about the same time in the Great Whale drainage. For example, points of a similar 3cm size to the smaller Laurel points from site GaFf-1 are illustrated in Fig. 4C (2nd row) in Chevrier (1986). These seem too early to reflect Meadowood influences; whatever their origin, the very great time gap between them and the ones we are hypothesizing to be Laurel leaves some chance that it may be possi­ ble to separate the two series. The best hope may lie with the larger kind of Laurel points which have much less variability of design, compared to the considerable variability of the smaller ones. What about the development of the Naskapi dialect from the base of East Cree? Our diagnostic Laurel points do spread eastwards to Caniapis­ cau by about AD 1200. Denton (1989: PI. 2j-l) shows them from sites GbEk-1 and GbEl-8, dated respectively to AD 1200 and 1250; this is not very clear evidence since the only complete point (j) is rather deviant and the others are basal fragments. Nonetheless, small side-notched points con­ tinue in the region through AD 1500, consistent with a continuing presence of Cree culture. Fortunately, there is a separate kind of evidence which may point to the arrival of Cree speech at Caniapiscau around AD 1200 which is provided by Denton's research. About that time, among other sources, there is increased use of quartzite from quarries at Mistassini. Mistassini seems to have been already part of the East Cree area since Laurel points ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR

are found there (Martijn and Rogers 1969). This may be evidence for newly emphasized cultural links to the southwest. Denton shows how the use of Mistassini quartzite is a part of a larger pattern of lithic use: sites with Mistassini material also tend to have chert from the Labrador Trough (to the north and slightly east), and also Ramah chert from northern Labrador. This wide-ranging southwest to northeast distribution of lithic sources fits nicely with the known patterns of Naskapi travel across the whole penin- sula.This pattern of lithic usage after AD 1200 contrasts with that for the immediately preceding time period, AD 800-1100, during which Caniapis­ cau sites were characterized instead by cherts from the west on the Hudson Bay-James Bay coast, as well as other sources. This partial changeover in the use of raw materials, when coupled with the Laurel designs which also point toward Cree language influences, is helpful in separating these side-notched points from the others found in a much earlier era, in the La Grande and Great Whale drainages. Continuing eastwards into the Naskapi territories, at Indian House Lake Samson (1983: Fig. 105) shows both large and small Laurel points from a Point Revenge site, HeDf-12 (loc. 4), which he dates to the Early Historic period (c. AD 1500) since it contains metal and European flint — one of each is reproduced here as Fig. 7. The assessment of these points involves even more complexities than we saw for the La Grande drainage. Not only are there side-notched ovate-trianguloid points as a part of the Point Revenge tradition itself, there are also very similar points found much earlier on the Labrador coast as part of the quite distinct Brinex complex. These latter are illustrated in Fitzhugh (1972: PI. 53) for the Red Ocher site at North West River dated to 1140 BC, the same time period in which such points occurred in the La Grande drainage. As was mentioned in that case, these are too early to be Meadowood influences, and although such points are found in the Lake Michigan area as early as 1700 BC, there is no present evidence for an archaeological link to a region as distant as Quebec-Labrador. The much later points which are a part of Point Re­ venge are of both the larger (about 6 cm) and the smaller (about 3 cm) sizes. The former, shown in Fitzhugh (1972: PI. 46a and 67a), are not very close to the Laurel design — Samson's example (1983: Fig. 105, third row, leftmost), shown here in Fig. 7 left, for Historic Point Revenge at Indian House Lake, is closer to the Laurel type, offering at least mild evidence of Laurel influences coming from the Naskapi just to the west. In the northern Labrador region, the culture for many centuries previ­ ously had been a northern variant of Point Revenge, presumably speaking some Beothuk-related dialect. Samson (1983) describes this culture (AD 1500-1800) as "Historic Point Revenge" because continuity with prehistoric Point Revenge is very strong, although the Laurel points may indicate some 96 DENNY

Figure 7: Left large Laurel point; right: small Laurel point, Indian House Lake (from Samson 1983) new affiliation with the Naskapi. This was a coastal culture relying upon a mix of seal and of caribou. During the Early Historic period the Eskimo invaded the Labrador coast and the Point Revenge people lost access to the seacoast resources (Loring 1988:162). Given the unreliability of caribou as a staple, the Point Revenge people may have sought to ally themselves to the west with the developing East Cree-Naskapi peoples — Loring re­ ports a site, Daniel Rattle-2, with massive use of caribou as evidence of their switching to an inland adaptation. However, it is possible that this new inland adaptation did not succeed, since after AD 1800 Samson notes considerable cultural change: earth tent rings appear, fireplace rocks are no longer fire-cracked,separat e hearths placed in line appear in oval tent sites, and these latter are noticeably smaller. Despite their link with the Naskapi, the Historic Point Revenge may not have been able to achieve suf­ ficient mobility to ward off starvation due to fluctuating caribou resources. The modern Naskapi, with their extraordinary mobility right across the peninsula from east to west, seem to be the product of a very late mi­ gration of East Cree-Naskapi people to the Indian House Lake area, just as they reported to Turner (1894:267): "when they came to their present place, they say that they found the Eskimo alone, and these only along the coast". In sum, we have seen a west to east progression of Laurel lithics from AD 800 on the Nottaway, to AD 900 on the La Grande, to AD 1200 at ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR 97

Caniapiscau, and AD 1500 at Indian House Lake, which seems to correlate with the west to east spread of East Cree and Naskapi dialects. Supporting evidence at Caniapiscau was the drawing of lithic supplies from Mistassini. At Indian House Lake, a beginning affiliation of Point Revenge people with the Naskapi seems to have been replaced by an incoming Naskapi migration after 1800. This account of the development of East Cree and Naskapi dialects implies particular mechanisms of language change. For the most part, ex­ isting groups adopted Cree speech as a part of new social alliances either with neighbours or with small groups of incomers. The most important at­ traction would have been expanded social alliances to ward off starvation in a region of low biological resources. However, for this to trigger language switching, the new social connections must have required participation in religious and ideological practices carried out in the new language. Inter­ marriage would further encourage change to the new, prestigious language. One exception to this pattern may have occurred if it is true that Naskapi migrants took over the Indian House Lake area.

Development of the Montagnais Dialects

As we have seen, MacKenzie's analysis of the Cree-Montagnais dialects shows the main split is between East Cree and Naskapi to the north, which we have just discussed, and Montagnais to the south, which we will consider now. To the west of both groups on the border of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula are the closely related Moose Cree and Atikamekw dialects. From Lac St. Jean, the Montagnais dialects stretch east to Hamilton Inlet. The linguistic data suggest a relatively recent spread of the Montagnais dialects, certainly not more ancient than the AD 900-1500 period in which East Cree-Naskapi developed. Mailhot (1992) has analysed two letters written in Montagnais at Betsiamites about 1795 and found the dialect to be very close to East Cree, and to lack many of the distinctive features of current-day Montagnais. MacKenzie (1980) has suggested that some features of Montagnais are accommodations to bilingualism in French. The standard picture from ehnohistory is that the Montagnais reached as far east as the Moisie when the French arrived, and expanded eastwards after that, reaching Hamilton Inlet about AD 1780 (Speck 1931). The archaeological study of the North Shore of the St. Lawrence is certainly proceeding vigorously, but at the time of this conference, October 1993,1 hadn't found areal summaries of the sort I have drawn upon for the northern half of the peninsula. One archaeologist told me this was because the government hadn't tried to flood the area yet! Nonetheless, what may be signs of the development of Montagnais speech, at the western end of 98 DENNY its continuum, occur in the report of substantial Laurel influences at Lac St. Jean (Moreau et al 1991). A broad view from the perspective of the Middle North Shore at Moisie is provided by Chevrier (1977). He stresses that the cariboo-hunting economy of the Montagnais did not require the use of coastal resources and that in fact they lived somewhat inland from the St. Lawrence shore. From AD 800 on the shore areas were used by temporary visitors whose permanent homes were further up the river; after AD 1300 these were certainly Iroquois. The nature of Montagnais relations with the Iroquois is a hotly debated topic in archaeology (Clermont 1989; Chapdelaine 1989). The eastern end of the Montagnais dialect continuum is at North West River, at the inland end of Hamilton Inlet. This raises difficult questions about the relation of Montagnais to the Point Revenge tradition, the an­ cestors of the Beothuks. After AD 1400, the modern Eskimo had taken over the northern and central coasts of Labrador and deprived the Point Revenge people of both marine resources and their main lithic material, Ramah chert. The sites at the mouth of Groswater Bay (the coastal part of Hamilton Inlet), Winter Cove (dated AD 1485 and 1515) and Aly's Head (dated AD 1625), show their predicament, since there was very fru­ gal use of Ramah chert compared to the prodigal use of it in earlier times (Fitzhugh 1978). It is possible that their descendants were the people vis­ ited by the Dutch captain Feykes Haan in 1718 (Bakker and Martijn 1991; Fitzhugh 1972:172) — he describes them as gaunt and having almost noth­ ing to trade. However, this may not be the case, since Haan also describes their dress, some features of which, particularly the tunic and the painted red crosses, seem slightly more like the Naskapi than either the Beothuk or the Montagnais (C. Oberholtzer, personal communication), raising the possibility that this was a group of Naskapi at the southeast corner of their enormous range. As outlined above, after AD 800 some Point Revenge people migrated to Newfoundland to become the Beothuk. Early on, the boundary zone along the north shore of the Strait of Belle Isle was occupied by typi­ cal Point Revenge people, who used lots of imported Ramah chert (Pintal 1989). However, after AD 1000, these most southerly Point Revenge groups seem to have emphasized their connection with their relatives in Newfound­ land by switching their lithic materials to Newfoundland cherts. This is the continuation of Point Revenge in southeast Labrador and in Newfoundland which archaeologists call the Little Passage complex (Robbins 1989). At Blanc Sablon, on the north shore of the Strait of Belle Isle, Little Passage sites continue down to the 1500's, when European (probably Basque) ma­ terials are found on them. However, just to the west at St. Augustin on the Lower North Shore of the St. Lawrence, the Newfoundland cherts were ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR

not used but quartz instead (Pintal 1989). It appears that, even as late as AD 1500, the Little Passage people, presumably speakers of Beothuk, were distinct from those to the west who were gradually adopting Montagnais. What eventually happened to the Point Revenge/Little Passage people is not yet clear. Given their strong connections with Newfoundland and the Beothuks, one likely fate is moving there to join the Beothuk. Another possibility is extinction in the face of Eskimo, Montagnais and European expansion. The last possibility is absorption into the Montagnais bands at North West River and St. Augustin. This latter possibility is strongly hypothesized by Loring (1988) , but at the moment there is not direct archaeological evidence for it. Some indirect evidence is offered by Speck (1931:572) who notes that the "Naskapi" (better Montagnais) of the Lower North Shore showed a fondness for the use of red ochre which is more like the Beothuks, the known descendants of Point Revenge, than the rest of the Montagnais. Perhaps it is realistic to presume that each of these fates may have befallen particular families and sub-groups. There are some aspects of the ethnohistoric record which seem to dis­ courage and some to encourage the idea of Point Revenge people being absorbed into the Montagnais. Martijn (1990) reports that by the 1700's, some Montagnais who seem to have had the Strait of Belle Isle region as a seasonal hunting area. They were encouraged by the French to settle in the region as staff for their trading posts. These Montagnais groups adopted Newfoundland as one of their winter refuges and trapping areas. They seem to have had both friendly and hostile relations with the Beothuk at varying times. However, they gradually developed alliance and intermarriage with the Micmac instead of the Beothuk, mildly discouraging the view that they were related to the latter. Martijn (1990) also reviews reports that some Beothuk were absorbed into the Montagnais, especially at St. Augustin. While this could have happened independently of any earlier absorption of their Point Revenge/Little Passage ancestors, it somewhat encourages this latter possibility. We shall have to await further archaeology from St. Au­ gustin and from North West River to clarify the relation of Point Revenge to the Montagnais.

Alternative Theories and A Summary

Given the rather slight evidence for the theory I have presented you will be pleased to hear there are alternative theories. Jocelyn Seguin (1985) has noted that about AD 450 there was a considerable increase in the popu­ lation of the La Grande drainage and that the downstream portion near James Bay was occupied for the first time. She hypothesizes that there was an influx of new peoples who were the ancestors of the Cree-Montagnais. 100 DENNY

Furthermore, she points out that this view fits with the historical linguistics put forward by Pentland (1985), who holds that the Cree and Montagnais dialects developed from a common ancestor spoken about AD 500. In addi­ tion, Seguin indicates that her theory parallels an early theory of Fitzhugh (1972) for the Labrador coast, in which he held that a new culture, Point Revenge, developed on the coast about AD 500, which was probably the ancestors of the Montagnais. In a later paper, Fitzhugh (1978) changed his mind, acknowledging that there is little archaeological evidence for this connection at present, whereas there is strong evidence connecting Point Revenge with the Beothuk instead. However, even if this parallel is de­ nied, Seguin's theory stands on its own merits. In addition, Seguin has suggested (personal communication) a reason why groups from the south­ west might want to move into the relatively less supportive environment of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula. They may have been forced to increase the size of their territories in order to compensate for lessened productivity caused by a cooling climate around AD 500. Fitzhugh (1972, 1978) has offered a comprehensive theory of the peo­ pling of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula, many points of which I have agreed with; especially the recognition in his 1978 paper that the Point Revenge people are not closely related to the Montagnais and Naskapi groups who replaced them. I have suggested an archaeological connec­ tion for Daniel Rattle/Point Revenge leading back through the Middlesex tradition, which both accounts for the similarities with Maritimes archae­ ology stressed by Fitzhugh, and connects up with the origins of Eastern Algonquian languages. In contrast to Seguin's theory, I have argued for a somewhat later de­ velopment of Cree-Montagnais language in Quebec-Labrador, coming after AD 800, mostly because I have seen an archaeological trace back to the Laurel tradition, which on other evidence, seems to be the source of Cree speech. I have traced the spread of Laurel lithics across the northern half of the Quebec-Labrador peninsula from AD 900 to 1500 as an archaeological correlate of the west to east spread of the East Cree and Naskapi dialects, and I have hypothesized that a similar spread will be found along the St. Lawrence North Shore as a correlate of the development of the Montag­ nais dialects. Obviously, this evidence is quite slight, as is the support for the other theories. All must be regarded as pioneering hypotheses requiring a lot more detailed study. With respect to my own theory, a further diffi­ culty should be emphasized; I am hypothesizing that Cree-Montagnais was adopted as a new language by existing populations who may have changed their subsistence strategies very little when they changed language. Con­ sequently, the archaeological evidence for this event may be very slight. The best indicators will be artifacts likely to symbolize social affiliation— ALGONQUIAN LANGUAGES IN QUEBEC-LABRADOR 101 the one which we have seen is the larger, fancier Laurel point, although it cannot presently be separated for certain from earlier points of similar design. Based on Mailhot (1986), I have argued that the motivation for switching language was to strengthen the extended social networks which permitted increased flexibility in hunting group membership needed in a region of limited resources.

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